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Re: Did ya ever wonder?

At my only permanent tech writing job, I got new computers for my whole crew
by documenting every minute we spent waiting for our computers. All of them.
Including reboot time and number of crashes. Without the actual numbers,
translated as money too - you need both figures - you are just whining, from
the bosses point of view. Frustrating but true.

Now as a small business owner, I can see why the figures are so important.
If it takes 14 hours for your box to build the help - and you can't touch
the machine while you are building or it could blow - that means that a day
and a half or your pay is spent sitting watching your computer while you get
paid. And you should put your feet up and read something that whole time to
make the point. It takes about a month of documenting to make the impression
but then expand the numbers out to the year - how much are you being paid to
look at your computer per year? It should give your bosses fits. If
necessary, drop this info in casual conversation to the bean counters too.
That should also make them nuts.

sharon

Sharon Burton-Hardin
President of the Inland Empire chapter of the STC
www.iestc.org
Anthrobytes Consulting
Home of RoboNEWS(tm), the unofficial RoboHELP newsletter
www.anthrobytes.com
Check out www.WinHelp.net!
See www.sharonburton.com!

You said:
| Personally, I was just "upgraded" from a Pentuim-75 to a Pentium-133
| with 16 whole Mb RAM. In order to get this fabu-lous-y tool, I had to go
| balistic four or five times. The person in charge of computers and
| systems keeps putting in a request for a better computer for me, but the
| Powers-That-Be refuse to budge on this. (BTW-the 4 secretaries/admin
| assistants just got Celeron 400 machines).
|
| ...and don't get me started on the fact that it now takes 14 hours to
| compile the help on my computer (but only 45 minutes when I test it at
| home on a Pll-300)